Housing
When Micro-Housing Misses the Point
A precious jewel-box tiny house isn't the same as dense, sustainable living.
In a recent bit on Bloomberg TV, Louise Harpman, partner at Specht Harpman Architects, walks an interviewer through the basics of micro-living. For one project, as she explains, the firm transformed a dingy sixth-floor walkup apartment on the Upper West Side to a fully functioning, multi-tiered home—a feat, given that the entire apartment is only 425 square feet.
This is the sort of space that city residents both deeply desire and plainly dread. A 425-square-foot apartment in Manhattan might command the kind of rent that would fetch a mortgage on a single-family house in another city. But when that micro-apartment looks like this, who's going to complain?